LITERARY NOTICES.

Mat/d Vivt*.n : a Drama ; and Poems, by Walter Pew. London : Messrs. Moxon, Son, and Co.— In one of the dialogues of his drama Mr. Rew puts into the mouth of a certain enthusiast, Dr. Viterbo, a description of " the modern journalist :' ; — Who voluble with forty thousand throats Deafens all creatures with a-wured words, As though, a lounger in celestial courts, He kept tbe councils of the Mind divine, And notes with nrd of arrogant contempt Each weak deflection in poor human beings From the sharp luminous line of the Ideal Traced by God's finger. To this challenge the hero of the drama—who is himself at once a poet and a critic—replies, in words which may fairly be supposed to express the author's own opinioD, that, though certain of the tribe" deserve all that the Doctor has said, yet he Would dull no jot the keen and hostile glance That saves the world from wisdom half-inspired And crushes back into our eager breasts Our crude unripened hoj-es. Were the critic of this volume to act after the manner •f Dr. Viterbo's journalist, then he might cull from "Maud Vivian," from its companion"verses, and from theprefatory notes of Mr. Rew, absurdities and affectations enough to justify any amount of ridicule. He might quote the first sentence of tbe preface to "Maud Vivian" as follows: —"That a countryman of Shakespeare undertake (sic.) to discuss the capabilities of the drama as a medium for highest artistic utterance, is an impertinence to be adventured only wich infinite scruple" —and after giving such an outline of its " plot" and such specimens of its language as would show that this " drama" was essentially undramatic, he might add that it was an "impertinence" ever to lay it before the public. He might further quote Mr. Row's own words that all dramatic artifice '•should subserve the end of revelation of character," and then point out that the drama of " Maud Vivian" revealed but one character from beginning to end—that namely of the author himself placed in various ill-realised situations. Mr. ReW must blame himself if his own words suggest references to Shakespeare, and the " modern journalist" might say " Turn, sir, to the Plays, and see whether Ophelia talks like Hamlet, whether Miranda views things from the same standpoint as Ferdinand, or whether, even in the fioodtide of her affection, the thoughts and words of Juliet have not a womanly grace which distinguish them entirely from those of Romeo. And turn, sir, to the Maud and Edgar—heroine and hero of this play which you have U freighted with ideas" which you were "unable to bring down to the level of the footlights"—and see whether there is anything in the language or style of thought attributed to these high-minded persons, by which, apart from any allusions to sex or circumstances, Maud could be distinguished from Edgar or Edgar from Maud." To this and to much...